knows it too, but that is not my affair; life as I have
said being altogether new to me. The stone was granite, and the men of
old time had used it like mud. The dressed blocks that made the profile
of the angles were from twenty feet long, ten or twelve feet high, and
as many in thickness. There was no attempt at binding, but there was no
fault in the jointing.

"And the little Japs built this!" I cried, awe-stricken at the quarries
that rose round me.

"Cyclopean masonry," grunted the Professor, punching with a stick a
monolith of seventeen feet cube. "Not only did they build it, but they
took it. Look at this. Fire!"

The stones had been split and bronzed in places, and the cleavage was
the cleavage of fire. Evil must it have been for the armies that led the
assault on these monstrous walls. Castles in India I know, and the forts
of great Emperors I had seen, but neither Akbar in the north, nor
Scindia in the south, had built after this fashion--without ornament,
without colour, but with a single eye to savage strength and the utmost
purity of line. Perhaps the fort would have looked less forbidding in
sunlight. The grey, rain-laden atmosphere through which I saw it suited
its spirit. The barracks of the garrison, the commandant's very dainty
house, a peach-garden, and two deer were foreign to the place. They
should have peopled it with giants from the mountains, instead
of--Gurkhas! A Jap infantryman is not a Gurkha, though he might be
mistaken for one as long as he stood still. The sentry at the
quarter-guard belonged, I fancy, to the 4th Regiment. His uniform was
black or blue, with red facings, and shoulder-straps carrying the number
of the regiment in cloth. The rain necessitated an overcoat, but why he
should have carried knapsack, blanket, boots, _and_ binoculars I could
not fathom. The knapsack was of cowskin with the hair on, the boots were
strapped soles, cut on each side, while a heavy country blanket was
rolled U-shape over the head of the knapsack, fitting close to the back.
In the place usually occupied by the mess-tin was a black leather case
shaped like a field-glass. This must be a mistake of mine, but I can
only record as I see. The rifle was a side-bolt weapon of some kind, and
the bayonet an uncommonly good sword one, locked to the muzzle, English
fashion. The ammunition pouches, as far as I could see under the
greatcoat, ran on the belt in front, and were double-strapped down.
White spatterdas